THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260630
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 35 lines
The U.S. military mission in Saudi Arabia targeted by a truck bomb Tuesday includes 94 men and women from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton.
By late Tuesday night, the Air Force had been able to account for more than 60 of the Langley personnel, said Col. Felix Dupre, vice commander of the Wing.
Of those, only one person was slightly injured, Dupre said. He described the injuries as cuts and bruises to the hands and feet.
He described the scene in Dhahran as chaotic, with crews digging all night through the debris from the blast.
The Langley personnel are in Saudi Arabia supporting a U.S. air wing enforcing a no-fly zone established over southern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
More than 5,000 airmen are assigned to the wing, which is part of a joint U.S.-military task force in Saudi Arabia.
Additional Langley personnel were scheduled to deploy for Dhahran today as part of a normal rotation.
Dupre said families of the Langley personnel were being notified as the airmen were accounted for.
``It's the most cowardly thing I can imagine to pull up in front of a residential complex and set off an explosion that's certain to kill or injure people, and run away,'' Dupre said.
Dupre said the explosion should serve as a reminder to Americans that ``there's essentially a war still going on. This is Desert Storm and it's still happening.'' MEMO: Main story about terrorist bombing also on page A1. by CNB